Excessive excitation by neurotransmitters can cause the degeneration and death of neurons. It is believed that this excitotoxic action is responsible for neuronal loss in stroke, cerebral palsy, cerebral ischaemia, perinatal asphyxia, epilepsy, ageing and Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's chorea and other chronic neurodegenerative disorders.
There are no specific therapies for these neurodegenerative diseases, but compounds acting specifically to antagonise excitatory neurotransmission at NMDA receptors could offer a novel therapeutic approach to these disorders (Schwarcz, R and Meldrum B, The Lancet, 140 (1985)).
Now with the present invention, there is provided a method of prevention and/or treatment of neurodegeneration in the aforementioned pathological conditions by the administration of specific, orally active NMDA receptor antagonists.